All posts by Mike Mitchell

We’re getting our first look at Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger in the upcoming Halloween episode of the popular sit-com The Goldbergs.

It has been just over 15 years since we saw Englund wear the glove in any official capacity on screen. Englund had said 2003’s Freddy Vs. Jason would be his last dance with the role he made legend, it now looks like we have one more chance to meet the man of our dreams.

The Halloween episode of The Goldbergs is set to air October 24th. 1….2…. Freddy’s Coming For You……

Back in the late 90’s and early 00’s, any kid that wandered into their local Spencer’s Gifts or Hot Topics would eventually come face to face with some of the most amazing genre based collectible figurines.

Legendary comic creator Todd McFarlane launched a line of collectibles called Movie Maniacs. Amazingly intricate and detailed figurines of the icons of horror. Freddy, Jason, Leatherface and so many more were able to be brought home to adorn our shelves. But like so many things, they went the way of the dodo.

Now, in the age of ultimate nostalgia, McFarlane is bringing back his line of creepy collectibles

During an interview at New York Comic Con over the weekend, Todd McFarlane told IGN that a handful of the lines that put the company on the map will be coming back.

“We live in a brave new world now where you can go literally from production to the consumer, right? You can cut out all the middle men and we’re seeing that with Kickstarters and people doing direct, you know, dot com,” McFarlane told the site. “So what we’re gonna do is, when we started McFarlane Toys twenty-plus years ago, we were built on the detailed stuff, doing all these cool monsters and all this sort of wicked stuff. Unfortunately, the stores we were selling to at that point, like Tower Records and Suncoast and Babbage’s and KB Toys, and all these other ones, they’ve all fallen to the wayside.”

But it won’t just be the Movie Maniac line, McFarlane dropped another big bombshell when he said “So we’re gonna go back to our origins and we’re gonna go, hey, for all you people who like Tortured Souls? There’s gonna be more. For all you people who like some of the Movie Maniacs? There’s gonna be more. But even the new — the stuff we just created, like Dragons? More. Spawn? More. Twisted Tales? More.”

It’s everything my teenage self with no disposable income could have desired. If you have forgotten what they looked like, check out below for a look at some of the original line of the Maniacs and then start putting your pennies away. Watch out Funko, McFarlane Toys is coming for you…

It looks like Marvel’s Merc With A Mouth will be breaking the fourth wall a bit sooner than originally planned. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news Thursday of a not insignificant shake up for Fox’s summer lineup of Marvel properties.

First up is The Merc With A Mouth, Deadpool, announcing that it will be moving UP its release date by two weeks, from June 1st back to May 18th. The new release date will set Deadpool 2 squarely in the middle of an already crowded month of serious box office draws with Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 hitting the screen on May fourth and Solo: A Star Wars Story dropping on May 25th.

In a fairly shocking bit of news, The Channing Tatum lead Gambit has been pushed back from Feb. 14, 2019, to June 7, 2019. It was announced that in the light of Director Gore Vebinski’s recent exit from the long gestating X Flick this late in pre-production has sentscrambling to find a new director, realizing they are going to need a lot more time to turn in a decent movie.

And last, but in my opinion, most upsetting, Josh Boone’s horror themed take on The New Mutant’s is being moved back a whopping 10 months from its scheduled April release. To many this looks as if there may be serious problems with the movie, however, insiders speculate it is to avoid Mutant overlap in overseas markets.

Its been, objectively, almost a decade since SNL has been at the top of its game, but now that the show is back in the lime light, a popular sketch may be soon considered “canon” in the Star Wars Universe.

Adam Driver appeared in an Undercover Boss sketch as Kylo Ren, infiltrating Star Killer Base to find out what the crew really think of him during his hosting gig last year. The sketch became so popular that now you can take his “Matt the Radar Tech” character into the massively popular Star Wars Battlefront 2.

Star Wars HQ has released footage of the orange vest’ed, blonde haired Kylo Ren as Matt tearing his way through enemies on different maps.

If you want to take Matt into action yourself, you can can get the mod from GameTSF here, and the Fire Saber one from DeathsStrokeYT at this link. Check out the reveal video below.

90’s kids rejoice, Warner Bros. and Hulu have come together to revive one of the most beloved cartoon franchises of all time.

On Thursday, Hulu announced that they were partnering with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Warner Brothers to bring back The Animaniacs in 2020.

With a two-season, straight-to-series order, Steven Spielberg will return as executive producer of the series, with Sam Register, president of Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Digital Series, and Amblin Television co-presidents Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank also serving as executive producers.

For those of us not in the know, The Animaniacs was a Spielberg produced return to the classic Warner Brothers/Bugs Bunny style of animation shorts and comedy. Animaniacs was itself a spin off of the wildly successful Tiny Toon Adventures and itself spun-out Pinky and the Brain and the criminally underrated Freakazoid.

“I am so pleased and proud that Animaniacs will have a home at Hulu,” said Spielberg. “Together with Warner Bros., we look to bring new audiences and longtime fans into this wild world of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot. I am also excited that the full library of Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures episodes are included in the deal.”

Hulu will also start streaming the entire back catalog of Animaniacs which debuted in 1993 and set the record for most Daytime Emmy Awards in the field of Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for any animated series, winning three times.

We have lost a lot of our beloved horror filmmakers over the course of the last few years, but none had more heart and soul in his work than our beloved zombie maestro George Romero.

Finally, after decades of work and gallons of blood, Hollywood has honored the man, the myth and the legend with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Check out a couple speakers below, and keep a tissue or two close by as we send off the King of the Undead himself.

I believe it was the comedian Lewis Black that said something to the tune of “I remember a time in my life when Halloween was Halloween and Santa wasn’t poking his ass into it.” I do not like to have my Halloween invaded by the cheerful round elf, he will sure as shit get his turn, but I think I may make an exception for today’s offering.

I was lucky enough to see a review screener of a little film that could called I’m Dreaming of a White Doomsday helmed by a man named Mike Lombardo, a sadistic, soulless filmmaker who wants to ruin everything you find cheery.

On a slim budget of around 10 grand, Lombardo and his crew have managed to pull of a once in a lifetime feat by taking a tired trope, that of an apocalyptic Christmas, spinning it around, placing it firmly on its head and then proceeds to kick it in the balls.

I’m Dreaming of a White Doomsday is basically a one set piece, set just before Christmas in the fallout shelter of a young family. After the father leaves to forage for supplies the mother is left alone to care for her young child while dealing with the realities of the end of the world.

If that sounds like a thin as you can be plot, that’s because it is and that is all that the movie needs. However, with the powerhouse performance of Hope Bikle as our mother with no rope to hang onto, you get dragged into this deceptively dark and depressing movie kicking and screaming and you will not be able to look away.

If the word Indie scares you at all, or has a certain perceived notion in your head, just forget it. This movie looks and feels like it was shot by a group of Hollywood hotshots out for a good time. There was never a minute that I had the thought of “Oh, well, I see what the filmmakers were going for, but they had very little to work with, bravo to them.” No, This is the movie that 10 Cloverfield Lane wished it could be.

And to top it all off, when you finally think that you know where this movie is going, it just turns around, gives you the middle finger and politely asks you for your guts!

The gang over at Reel Splatter Productions (click the link to check out their web site, you won’t forgive yourself if you don’t) have put together a movie that cruises in at around an hour and 10 minutes but will never let you forget the time you spend with them. They are hitting the festival circuit now and if you have the chance, make sure you go check them out! These guys will be going far, and I for one welcome their fresh eye to the genre! Well played, boys… Well played….

For every one of my generation, it’s a pretty safe bet to say that we all grew up, in one way or another with the legendary after school cartoon line up of The Disney Afternoon, and though Gummy Bears came before it, Ducktales is what brought us racing home to turn on the tube.

The show became a legend and launched a new age of television animation that focused on quality and fun and NOT cost effectiveness and toy lines. Disney upped its game big time and followed up Ducktales with shows like Goof Troop, Tailspin, Gargoyles and my own personal favorite, Darkwing Duck.

Sadly though, like all good things, Ducktales only lasted for 3 seasons and a total of 99 episodes and a feature length theatrical movie (which launched its own animation studio to concentrate on quality direct to video features) before Disney pulled the plug. However those 99 episodes were etched into our souls as some of the brightest spots in our collective childhoods.

Flash forward to 2015, nearly 30 years after the debut of the original and Disney sent the cartoon world for a spin like it hadn’t seen in years by announcing a revival the much beloved Duckberg and its inhabitants that would premiere on DisneyXD. The announcement was met with reserved cheers. What would they be doing? A continuation, a re-imagining? Would it be gritty and realistic or go anime inspired? Who would return, what adventures would they have? Disney remained pretty hush hush about the details for the next year until they had assembled an all-star cast to strut out to the fans.

The biggest get for the show was the casting of Doctor Who’s David Tennant as the beloved Scrooge McDuck. Alan Young, the original iconic voice had died shortly before the announcement, and Tennant, a crowd favorite to begin with would find himself stepping into his second set of big shoes and trying to fill them. Communities Danny Pudi, SNL’s Bobby Moynihan and Beck Bennet would also be stepping into to help round out a cast of veteran vocal performers and comedians.

But enough of the history, how was the premiere? In two words – Nostalgically Glorious! The show is a total reboot, starting with Donald Duck introducing his nephews to Scrooge for the first time and going on their first grand adventure, to discover the Lost Jewel of Atlantis. Along the way we are also introduced to Scrooge’s housekeep Mrs. Beekly and her daughter Webby.

Here is where this new version begins to get things right. The show fixes Webby. In the original, Webby was a shrill, whiney little stereotypical girl who would always get in the way and bother “the boys”. Any time she was on the screen it was like nails on a chalk board. In this new version, she is a devoted fan of Scrooge and his adventurous life and is excited to meet the Nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, but she is no longer the squeaky, helpless character. She can take care of herself and is in every way an equal to the nephews in the story.

Tennant is a joy to listen to as Scrooge. Just as he was as The Doctor, his charm and elegance shines through, but as much as Scrooge tends to be, when it is time to play the grousing old man, Tennant shines still. Yes, you do miss Alan Young in the role, but Tennant plays it with the reverence and skill it deserves. Tennant doesn’t make you forget about Young, but he does make you remember the past, but enjoy the present.

Ducktales 2017’s first episode entitled appropriately “Woo-oo” is a good, nostalgic time that will warm your heart and make you remember why Disney was king of the Afternoon for so long.

Oh, and they HAVE confirmed that Darkwing Duck will be showing up in the future which for ME personally is reason enough to stick with the show!

It’s no secret that Deadpool emerged as one of last years biggest movies, showing that an R rated superhero movie can work and paved the way for the phenomenal Logan. And now that Deadpool 2 is well into production, fans are slathering to get any info they can on the Merc With The Mouth’s follow outing.

From Marvel.com – “Domino is a mutant with the ability to subliminally and psionically initiate random telekinetic acts that affect probability in her favor by making improbable (but not impossible) things to occur within her line of sight, thus causing her to have “good luck” and her opponents to have “bad luck.” This phenomenon can be anything from an enemy’s equipment failure to hitting just the right switch with a stray shot to shut down an overloading nuclear reactor.”

With the morphinominal Power Rangers reboot movie hitting home video in just a couple weeks, I wanted to take the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the original theatrical outing of the multi-colored Teenagers With Attitudes so I popped in my DVD of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie.

Power Rangers The Movie was released in theaters in 1995 at the height of the Power Rangers popularity. The movie featured the second team featuring original rangers Tommy (White Ranger), Billy (Blue Ranger) and Kimberly (Pink Ranger) and new comers to the series after the departure of the original Red, Black and Yellow Rangers. Adam (Black Ranger), Aisha (Yellow Ranger) and Rocky (Red Ranger) take over for Zack, Trini and Jason respectively.

The film’s plot, so much as there really is one, centers around Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa’s search for a centuries old Hyperlock Chamber that serves as a prison for the villainous Ivan Ooze who was imprisoned six thousand years ago by Power Rangers Leader and disembodied floating head Zordon.

Zedd wants Ivan Ooze to destroy Zordon and thereby destroying the Power Rangers. The destruction of the Ranger’s Command Center leads them on a quest on a far away planet to find a new power centered on Ninjitsu and the Ninja Zords.

In the absence of the Rangers to stand in his way, Ooze over throws Rita and Zedd, enslaves the parents of Angel Grove using mystical slime and begins the search for his own giant robots that were hidden long ago beneath Angel Grove. Naturally the Rangers find their new powers and Zords, return to earth, destroy Oozes Ecto-Morphicon Titans and then Ooze himself, saving Angel Grove and all of humanity.

Sure, its a pretty basic story all together, but honestly, what did you expect from The Power Rangers, Hamlet-like dramatics? So lets dig into the particulars. First, lets get the bad out of the way.

This is the Power Rangers. Its full of annoying sound effects during the fight scenes. Bonks, Zings and Swooshes are all over the place here. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they had been used lightly to accent a few moments when they kind of belonged, especially when it is just the “Teens” themselves fighting before they morph. Once the team morphs, swish away all you like. It fits in those moments and would give a nice division between teen and ranger.

Also, lets talk about the elephant in the room. The CGI. Dear god, the CGI is bad and it takes up the majority of the last 20 minutes of the movie once the Rangers return to earth to fight Ooze and his robots. I mean, I knew that they wouldn’t go with a guy in a suit, but come on, this is just insulting, especially when Ooze enters into the Wasp Morphicon Titan and it morphs into a giant CGI Ivan Ooze, its just the stuff of nightmares, and not in the good way.

But despite all of that, there is plenty to love about the movie. And the biggest saving grace is Paul Freeman (Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Belloq) as the lead villain Ivan Ooze. I read an interview that Freeman had never even heard of the franchise before taking the role, that he just loved the fact that Ivan Ooze was a classic over the top, scene chewing, ham of a villain and unashamedly so. Whenever Freeman is on screen (and Oozes design is outstanding) it is such a joy to watch him over act in the best of ways. He creates something so memorable and fun to watch out of something that could have been so outstandingly awful.

The movie does maintain the tone of Power Rangers and ups the look and the budget, giving pretty much everything from the TV show a much needed face lift for its first “big” budget outing. The design team should be applauded for taking a bunch of people in latex tights and making them look and feel like warriors. The look especially shines in the villains overhaul. Lord Zedd, still one of my favorite villain costumes of all time, looks terrifying to a kid. Even his exposed brain pulses and moves.

However, weirdly enough, there is one decision that was made that just utterly confuses me. Instead of using Babboo and Squat, 2 henchmen from the show, the team consolidated the two into a single new character that is never seen again. A pig monster named Mordont. He works fine, and the costume is lovely, its just a decision that confuses.

But, I cant end this review without talking about one of the stand out duos to make have a true character arc. Of course, I am talking about Bulk and Skull.

Throughout the original few seasons, Bulk and Skull were the antagonists to the unmorphed team. Always played for laughs, the duo quickly became a fan favorite in the series and made a splash with their move to the big screen. They go from being one note bullies to heroes through the course of the movie all while still keeping what made them so like-able to begin with, being the series answer to the 3 Stooges. Their arc from Bully to Hero does continue through the shows following seasons.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie moves along at a brisk pace, maintains its sense of fun and urgency, has some highly entertaining performances but does suffer from the technology of the time. Does it hold up? Well, yes… Kind of. When it works, it clicks on all cylinders, but when it fails, it fails hard. If you took your kid to see the reboot, why not show them the original movie? They will probably love it and you will get a bit of a nostalgic high. At the end of the day, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is worth your time.

Oh, and by the way, if you happen to be a retro gamer, checkout the SNES games attached to the movie, they are DAMN fun!

Well here is something I did NOT expect to see when I turned on my computer this evening. With E3 right around the corner and every major gaming company, developer and outlet clamoring for your attention, Atari is making waves with something so insanely cryptic it is driving gamers mad.

Yes, when I say Atari, I do mean Atari! The grandfather of home video game consoles whose name is synonymous with gaming legends and legendary failures, has announced a new product called “The Atari Box”, a gaming product that Atari themselves claims to have been years in the making.

Now, I can hear you saying, that this is probably just another plug and play legends console. Well, according to a prominent member on Atari Age forums, the go to source for all things Atari, he was approached by Atari to be a member of a focus group on the Atari Box and confirms that this is something wholly new to the gaming industry.

Really, that is absolutely all we know as of now. Not a whole lot to go on, but you have to admit, having a new system enter the market with the name Atari attached to it is nothing if not exciting for us gamers that were born with a joystick in our hands.

Atari did release a teaser video that really doesn’t show anything except for an animated fly over of a classic 2600 looking console. if you are interested and want to follow along with any announcements you can check out the Ataribox website. Of course we will continue to follow this interesting story and let you know all the latest info as it is released.

Since the early days of the SNES, when “Retro Gaming” was still in its infancy, retro gaming found a place in peoples consoles in the form re-releases of classic games like Pac-Man, Space Invaders and even up to the updating of Super Mario All Stars.

Now that game developers have had several generations to perfect the process of 3D graphics and game play, and we OG gamers are getting older and have plenty (ish) of disposable income, retro style games have found new life thanks to crowd funding platforms like Indie-GoGo.

The newest game to make waves to come from the crowd source scene is the Banjo-Kazooie clone, Yooka -Laylee, developed by a team of game designers that came from the glory days of N64 Rare. However, the reception was, shall we say, one that failed to live up to the legacy that preceded it.

Now, the team from one of my favorite YouTube channels Stop Skeletons From Fighting (previously the Happy Video Game Nerd) is taking a look at the rise and fall of the hugely popular platforming sub-genre, the Collect-O-Thon. Check out the video below.

It is simply a great time to be alive, especially if you love making fun of bad entertainment. It’s no secret that MST3K has influenced a generation of fans and comedians. One just has to look at the success of the crowd funding campaign for MST3K The Return. But what about those that choose to follow in the footsteps of Mike, Joel and the Bots?

Rifftrax, the official site for Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett has given voice to many amateur riffers on their site, but, like anything else, one particular group manages to stand head and tails above the competition. Enter the Incognito Cinema Warriors.

At a quick glance, the comparison to MST3K is obvious. A soldier is trapped in a movie theater by an insane scientist during the zombie apocalypse. In exchange for shelter from the hoards of undead, Rick Wolf and his robot friends are the subject of bad movies, shorts and video games and provide a running rifftastic commentary.

ICWXP, as the show is known in its short hand, takes its ques from MST3K, but ups the ante by providing a more adult oriented humor. They work a little bluer than the MST gang and seems to have more of a bite to it, but also like MST in its hey day, the show exemplifies the ideology behind independent cinema and the low budget, fly by the seat of your pants, doing it for the love of the craft style of film making.

Until very recently when they signed up for a patreon account, the show was done by people with day jobs, when they could do it, sacrificing time and money to pay homage to a show they obviously grew up with and loved. They are so good, in fact, that they even gained the attention of the Riff-Meister himself, Mike Nelson.

And while their riffing of movies and shorts are fun and amazing, in my humble opinion, where these guys manage to make themselves stand out is their riffing of recent video games, especially on the Resident Evil remake.

If you have torn your way through MST3K: The Return and can’t wait between Rifftrax releases, why don’t you give these guys a chance. Check out their webpage here, and if you like them, consider throwing them a sheckle or two to show your appreciation and support this kind of indie entertainment.

With Spiderman: Homecoming due out in just a few months, and with the wall crawler already well established in the MCU, Sony is riding high on the hype machine. And never one to let the momentum die, Sony announces a major casting decision in their Spider-verse.

Tom Hardy has officially jumped ship from the DC universe (Bane – The Dark Knight Rises) to join the Marvel world as fan favorite Eddie Brock, better known as Venom.

The movie will be a stand alone and may not feature Spiderman at all. Nothing is known plot wise about the movie, but we do know that Venom will be directed by Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer.

Hopefully Fleischer will bring the same amount of charm, fun and action to Venom that he did to Zombieland.

Eddie Brock/Venom was previously played by Topher Grace in the critically and fan panned Spiderman 3, directed by Sam Raimi.

Good god I love Indie horror. I grew up on a steady stream of Troma and Full Moon movies as a kid (Ask your parents). There is something about a movie that is shot on a shoe string budget by people who love what they are doing, its elevates the idea into an art form.

Garden Party Massacre is a low budget, indie send up of your typical horror movies. Imagine if you would The 3 Stooges taking on Sam Raimi and you get the idea behind Garden Party Massacre.

Written, directed and starring Gregory Blair, Massacre begins as typical get together of several friend but quickly turns into a comedic romp that had me giggling throughout the film. Massacre doesn’t take itself seriously and neither should you.

One of the hardest things to do is nail horror comedy, and Garden Party Massacre hits all the bloody beats in its brisk 1:10 play time and it uses every moment it has to full effect.

The pros – There are a lot of chuckles to be had and when you think you have the movie figured out, you don’t.

The Cons – Its a low budget indie movie. Some of the acting is questionable, but I still had a damn good time watching this flick.

Garden Party Massacre is currently making the round on the festival circuit and from what I have seen, audiences are eating it up. Check out the trailer below.

With the newest season of Doctor Who seeing the departure of not only Peter Capaldi as the time travelling Time Lord and Peter Moffit saying goodbye as show runner, we have another casualty to report.

Fan favorite Missy (The Master’s latest incarnation), played with villainous glee by the amazing Michelle Gomez will also be leaving the show.

“My pals are going so I’m going,” Gomez said in an interview with RadioTimes.com. “Everybody’s leaving, so I’m going too. I mean, what would I do without Peter and Steven? Who would I be? ”

Missy made her debut in the 2014’s Deep Breath only later to be revealed as The Doctors arch villain The Master and has appeared in a whopping 9 episodes over the last few seasons and is scheduled to appear in 3 more this season, including a highly anticipated appearance with the John Simms, the previous Master.

“[I’ll miss] the fact that it was probably one of the best jobs I’ve ever had, the fact that I’m a woman of a certain age who’s this ass-kicking action figure.

“I won’t miss the corset because that was agony, and I’m a woman that likes a big lunch. And that’s not fun to wear after you’ve had two helpings and dessert.

“So I won’t miss that. But I’ll miss the amazing, wonderful, incredible Peter Capaldi, who I think is one of the best Doctors we’ve ever had. I’ll miss somebody like Steven Moffat writing me the best lines I’ve ever had in my career.

“I won’t miss the rain in Wales, but I will miss Wales. And the incredible crew that work so hard. It’s not work for them, it’s a passion, and that’s wonderful to be surrounded by. It’s very inspiring and energising.

“Yeah, I’m gonna miss a lot about that job,” she concluded. “It was a great job.”

BBC wasn’t kidding when they announced season 11 would be a total fresh start for the long running series. Hopefully we don’t lose Bill and Nardol along with them.

Get ready to join the Satellite of Love when Jonah, Tom, Crow and the gang take Kinga Forester’s newest experiment to a city near you. Joel Hodgeson, creator of MST3K, announced via Youtube a 26 city tour this summer beginning in July in Boston and wrapping up in August with a stop in Atlanta with the highlight being a 2 night engagement at the San Diego Comic Con. Jonah and the Gang will be taking on the seminal teen cave man story Eegah! Check out the announcement below followed by the full list of tour stops for the Mystery Science Theater 300 Live! Watch Out For Snakes Tour.

Marvel, Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, Santa Clarita Diet, Mystery Science Theater 3000, it seems that Netflix is suddenly becoming the go to media empire for sheer awesome, so how do you follow up a string of successes like that? Well, they bring back the Queen of 80’s Thievery, Carmen Sandiego.

Little is known about the show at this stage except that it will be animated and will follow closer to the legendary edutainment games from the 80’s. However they do have decades of material to pull from from animated shows, game shows and chose your own adventure books.

The Tracking Board is also reporting that Netflix has signed none other than Jane The Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez to voice the globe hopping, landmark pilfering master criminal herself.

The Star Wars 40th Anniversary celebration is currently underway at Star Wars Celebration Orlando. Of course no celebration happening this year would be complete without giving tribute to the Princess that lead the Rebellion against the Empire. Check out the tribute to Carrie Fisher below, and you should get some tissue ready, because, you know, the feels…

Following the tribute, composer John Williams lead a live orchestra in a performance of Princess Leia’s Theme.